Friday, July 23, 2010

Words That Break the Rules

I just found this great idea from Sarah Cooley's blog! I have taken the picture and description straight from her blog First Grader...at Last!.

Rule Breakers

My first grade teacher Mrs. Callahan used to call words that didn't sound the same way they are spelled "rule breakers"...I guess because rule breakers are words that don't really follow the rules we teach in phonics. Last year I noticed that my students were having difficulty spelling the words was and get, so I decided to reintroduce those words as rule breakers--and we stuck those words in jail!!! They loved it! I think the visual of seeing the word behind the little bars stuck with them like it did with me so LONG AGO! After that, every time they came across a word that wasn't spelled the way it sounded, they would say, "OOOOH! Rule breaker! Let's put it in jail!" So thanks for teaching me about rule breakers, Mrs. Callahan. Maybe my students will remember it forever too!

My room is all "western" in decor. We too have rule breakers called "Outlaws" and we post them on our WANTED poster that I bought at a teacher supply story. As part of our Words Their Way word study program, we have several "outlaws" each week. (WTW calls them oddballs.) I love the idea of putting them in jail too.